5 Best New Songs of the Week – 17/07/2017

Been a while, but here’s five new tracks for your perusal and enjoyment. AND I’ve included two ‘bonus’ videos at the bottom. Lastly, normally I don’t include reissues here – it’s NEW music after all – but this Psychic TV track is beautiful so give it a listen.

Lens Mozer – All My Friends

‘All My Friends’ is not an LCD Soundsystem cover. It comes closer to Galaxie 500, but less shy, with actual lust for life. (You know how comparisons are always “like X, but different” – so why compare anyway?). There’s hardly any information about Lens Mozer on the internet that I can find, except that he is recording an LP, which pleases me as ‘All My Friends’ is good. It’s the kind of rare pop song that appears and exists as its own universe as a bubble in ours. Where do you come from?

The band name is perhaps a bit uninspired, but ‘Gloom’ is a righteous track. It starts off like one of those quasi-dream pop bands (see Mercury Girls), but as soon as the first chorus kicks in we know that this is something trickier and more inspired, like a suddenly very light-footed and light-hearted Lana Del Rey, or a Fleetwood Mac stripped off all their recognisability. Who knew the Finnish were this good at pop?

I don’t know what it is with this Fleet Foxes-esque track. I got tired of that kind of music a long time ago. Maybe it’s the beautifully crafted video, the fantastic religious imagery, the sheer imagination. A less gruesome Hieronymus Bosch. Maybe it’s the echoes of The Shins. And I have to confess, that hook is catchy. As far as I know there’s nothing upcoming with Hollow Hand, but keep an eye out anyway!

Happy Spendy – Flex

Happy Spendy’s ‘Flex’ is classic bedroom pop, half-whispered vocals with moody synths and all. Frankie Cosmos, but less quirky and more genuinely emotional. Or Molly Nilsson, reimagined as the girl who stays home at the night of the party. And, not to forget, ‘Flex’ is catchy. It’s part of Happy Spendy’s three-song EP You Look Lovely which is available here.

Sloan Peterson – Rats

What energy. It’s clear that there’s a lot of emotion and lived experience behind this track (that’s the kind of thing a blasé book review would say, but hey, a cliché is a truth). Sloan Peterson’s EP is out 8 September via Mirror Record and I hope it’s full of tracks like this resembling Mitski and Patti Smith (not the most accurate comparisons here).

Bonus Videos

As I mentioned, two bonus videos for you: a beautiful one by Magana and a crazy one for School Damage.